from the and-now-we-wait dept

Earlier this month, we wrote about a White House Petition, asking to make unlocking mobile phones legal again, since it had been made infringing again, thanks to the Librarian of Congress omitting it from the list of DMCA exceptions last year. As we noted, the White House had recently bumped up the number of signatures needed for it to respond from 25,000 to 100,000, making it difficult to get over that barrier.

However, overnight, that petition finally got over the hurdle, hitting 100,000 signatures. I believe this may be the first petition to hit that threshold under the "new" system. Of course, getting it to that point is merely step one. The real issue is in how the White House will respond, and they have an incredibly easy out: they just point out that the exemption process happens on a schedule, and that those who are concerned about this issue should file to have the Librarian of Congress reconsider in three years...